012: Tom Kay/How I Built Finisterre

Tom Kay by Matt Smith

“There was no magic formula. I made it up as I went along”.

For episode 012 of the Looking Sideways podcast I welcomed Tom Kay, the founder of UK surf brand Finisterre, onto the show. Father, surfer, swimmer, lifeboatman, fisherman and entrepreneur, Tom founded Finisterre in 2002, famously selling their first fleece from a pile in his bedroom.

Tom casually setting one up. Photo by Al MacKinnon

Since then, Tom has overseen the brand’s evolution from bedroom start-up to perhaps the UK’s most beloved and influential surf brand, with a staff of 50 working from a workshop overlooking the cliffs of St Agnes in Cornwall.

Finisterre family

Tom and I spent the day in Brighton, and after a brisk sea swim we sat down among the pebbles on Brighton Beach to spend an hour discussing his life and career.